Police left ‘between a rock and a hard place’ amid debate over Linehan arrest

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The head of the police force that arrested Father Ted creator Graham Linehan said his officers are in “an impossible position” when dealing with statements made online, and should not be “policing toxic culture wars debates”.

Transcript

00:00The Metropolitan Police came under fire after the Father Ted and IT Crowd creator Graham Linnan

00:10was arrested at Heathrow Airport on Monday over three posts he made on X about trans issues.

00:19In his first statement after the controversy erupted, head of the force Sir Mark Rowley said

00:26while the decision to investigate and ultimately arrest the man was made within existing legislation

00:35which dictates that a threat to punch someone from a protected group could be an offence,

00:42he acknowledged the concern caused by such incidents given differing perspectives on the

00:50balance between free speech and the risks of inciting violence in the real world.

00:57Sir Mark added that his officers were in an impossible position when dealing with statements

01:05made online and should not be policing toxic culture wars and debates. In response to all of this,

01:14senior Tory Sir James Cleverley said the arrest looked like a real overreaction to what was,

01:22as he described, self-evidently a joke. Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick described

01:28the incident as a complete waste of police time. However, the new Green Party leader,

01:35Zach Polanski, told the BBC the arrest seemed proportional.

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